The object of this invention is to provide a motorized agricultural machine of the type having two driven axles and at least three different attachment compartments, to enable the optional attachment of various working appliances for working the soil for tillage, cultivation and harvesting to be attached as required.
All known motorized agricultural machines suffer from the drawback that they are not suitable for all operations involved in working the soil, fertilization, tillage, cultivation, insect control and harvesting for all the usual crops encountered in farming units, so that not only the usual tractors but also special appliance carriers, for example, for tillage and cultivation must be used, and these generally are not suitable for fertilization, still less for harvesting operations.
Special harvesting machines such as field choppers, pick-up presses, loading vehicles, beet harvesting machines, potato harvesters and transport vehicles are not suitable for working the soil, tillage, fertilization and cultivation. Manure spreaders designed for spreading farmyard manure and liquid manure are not suitable for the transportation of crops, still less for working the soil or for the care of field crops. The mechanization of agriculture, with numerous machines of various kinds and with many categories of vehicles, necessitates considerable capital which average size agricultural concerns are unable to invest. The trailers or attachment appliances hitherto known call for powerful tractors and are becoming heavier, so that the continually more powerful tractors can be adequately utilized. This increasingly mechanized field cultivation causes more and more serious damage to the soil as a result of the pressure by heavy vehicles exerted thereon. The lower yields, caused by the deterioration in the biological quality of the soils, cannot be counteracted even by the use of larger quantities of water-soluble manures and toxic weed-killers, pesticides and the like except at the price of a worsening of the quality of the products.
Known farm tractors with steered front wheels of comparatively small size and with very large rear wheels suffer from the additional drawback that working appliances can be built on them only in front of the front axle or behind the rear axle. Their comparatively narrow and frequently varying angle also results, in the case of many agricultural tasks, in numerous ground tracks made by the tractor and by the various working machines and often situated side by side.
A further disadvantage of tractors with bulky rear tyres is that they do not travel satisfactory in row crops and tend to tilt over.
Tractors of which only the rear axle is driven cause additional damage to the soil by the slipping of the wheels, besides being insufficiently steerable over loose soil.
Whilst other known types of special tractor with four driven wheels of equal size are known, a driver's compartment above the front axle and a loading platform above the rear axle are fitted with three attachment compartments for working appliances and these tractors have fairly satisfactory travelling properties. However, these likewise suffer from all the drawbacks attendant upon the comparatively narrow gauge of the usual tractors. Furthermore, their ground clearance under the driven axles is so limited that neither working appliances nor conveying devices for any crops up in front of the front axle could be mounted between the axles.
More recent known tractors with four driven wheels, either of equal or of different size, and with attachment compartments in front of the front axle, behind the front axle, and a loading surface situated behind the driver's compartment occupying a central position above the two axles, have substantially the same disadvantages as the types of construction previously described.
A known apparatus carrier with a motor, gearing and driver's compartment mounted above or behind the front axle and with a connecting frame between the front axle and rear axle, having ample ground clearance and equipped with attachment devices for working appliances and also capable of taking a loading platform, would be provided with four attachment compartments for working appliances if attachment devices of the kind known per se were to be installed in front of the front axle in addition.
This vehicle, however, suffers from the drawback that only light working appliances, situated below and between the axles, can be installed in front of the front axle, and that only small quantities of material can be transported on the loading surface, because otherwise either the steering of the vehicle would be impeded or the driver's vision would be obscured.
Other known apparatus carriers with a driven rear axle and with smaller undriven steerable front wheels, their axle being connected with the drive of the rear axle via a longitudinal member situated on the centre of the vehicle, suffer from similar drawbacks. These vehicles likewise have theoretical attachment compartments in front of, between, above and behind the axles. With many operations, however, they do not enable full use to be made of these compartments, either because the height of the attachment above the longitudinal member is inadequate, owing to the necessity of preserving visability for the driver or avoiding an excessive load on the front axle.
A further construction for an apparatus carrier with small front wheels but a comparatively wide track and with a motor between the front axle and the rear axle and with a driver's seat in the middle of the vehicle for travel along public roads and also with a seat over each of the two wheel tracks (adapted to the working width of seed drills and chopping machines) has attachment compartments only between the axles and behind the rear axle. There are no facilities for mounting a loading platform on the vehicle, for instance, or for attaching working appliances in front of the front axle. Whilst this vehicle produces fewer tracks on the field, it proves insufficiently steerable on sloping ground or on wet or loose soil. Above all, it is not suitable for the attachment of harvesting devices or manure spreaders and still less for the addition of loading compartments for the transporation of harvested crops.